Fond Czech memories

From European Voice's Entre-Nous column

7/8/09, 9:04 PM CET

Updated 4/23/14, 8:56 PM CET

Just who is the 'chicken on tiptoes'?

Who now remembers the Czech presidency of the EU? Probably not Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president, who at the European Council in June said nice things about Jan Fischer, the Czech Republic’s interim prime minister, but added: “What happened before, I have not kept in my memory.”

One of the things that went before was an ambiguous slogan in Czech saying ‘we’ll sweeten Europe’ that could also have been translated as ‘we’ll make Europe’s life harder’.

Perhaps that is why, as Lidové noviny reports from inside the beleaguered Czech camp, the ladies in the entourage of Alexandr Vondra, erstwhile minister for Europe, referred to him as Šugr – a nickname which was also taken up by Cecilia Malmström and Astrid Thors, respectively Europe ministers of Sweden and Finland. It is also disclosed that the Czech diplomats referred to the French press as “our fans” and to Sarkozy as kure na špickách, “the chicken on tiptoes”.